1LORAX(1) Lorax LORAX(1)
2
6 lorax - Lorax Documentation
7 Authors
9 Brian C. Lane <bcl@redhat.com>
10 "I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees [and images]."
12 The lorax tool is used to create the Anaconda installer boot.iso as
14 well as the basic release tree, and .treeinfo metadata file. Its depen‐
15 dencies are fairly light-weight because it needs to be able to run in a
16 mock chroot environment. It is best to run lorax from the same release
17 as is being targeted because the templates may have release specific
18 logic in them. eg. Use the rawhide version to build the boot.iso for
19 rawhide, along with the rawhide repositories.
20
22 Create the Anaconda boot.iso
23 usage: lorax [-h] -p PRODUCT -v VERSION -r RELEASE [-s REPOSITORY]
26 [--repo REPOSITORY] [-m REPOSITORY] [-t VARIANT] [-b URL]
27 [--isfinal] [-c CONFIGFILE] [--proxy HOST] [-i PACKAGE]
28 [-e PACKAGE] [--buildarch ARCH] [--volid VOLID] [--macboot]
29 [--nomacboot] [--noupgrade] [--logfile LOGFILE] [--tmp TMP]
30 [--cachedir CACHEDIR] [--workdir WORKDIR] [--force]
31 [--add-template ADD_TEMPLATES]
32 [--add-template-var ADD_TEMPLATE_VARS]
33 [--add-arch-template ADD_ARCH_TEMPLATES]
34 [--add-arch-template-var ADD_ARCH_TEMPLATE_VARS] [--noverify]
35 [--sharedir SHAREDIR] [--enablerepo [repo]]
36 [--disablerepo [repo]] [--rootfs-size ROOTFS_SIZE]
37 [--noverifyssl] [--dnfplugin DNFPLUGINS] [--squashfs-only]
38 [--dracut-arg DRACUT_ARGS] [-V]
39 OUTPUTDIR
40 Positional Arguments
42 Output directory
43 Named Arguments
45 V show program's version number and exit
46 required arguments
48 p, --product
49 product name
50 v, --version
52 version identifier
53 r, --release
55 release information
56 s, --source
58 source repository (may be listed multiple times)
59 Default: []
61 -repo source dnf repository file
63 Default: []
65 Named Arguments
67 m, --mirrorlist
68 mirrorlist repository (may be listed multiple times)
69 Default: []
71 t, --variant
73 variant name
74 Default: ""
76 b, --bugurl
78 bug reporting URL for the product
79 Default: "your distribution provided bug reporting tool"
81 -isfinal
83 Default: False
84 c, --config
86 config file
87 Default: "/etc/lorax/lorax.conf"
89 -proxy repo proxy url:port
91 i, --installpkgs
93 package glob to install before runtime-install.tmpl runs. (may
94 be listed multiple times)
95 Default: []
97 e, --excludepkgs
99 package glob to remove before runtime-install.tmpl runs. (may be
100 listed multiple times)
101 Default: []
103 -buildarch
105 build architecture
106 -volid volume id
108 -macboot
110 Default: True
111 -nomacboot
113 Default: True
114 -noupgrade
116 Default: True
117 -logfile
119 Path to logfile
120 Default: ./lorax.log
122 -tmp Top level temporary directory
124 Default: "/var/tmp/lorax"
126 -cachedir
128 DNF cache directory. Default is a temporary dir.
129 -workdir
131 Work directory, overrides --tmp. Default is a temporary dir
132 under /var/tmp/lorax
133 -force Run even when the destination directory exists
135 Default: False
137 -add-template
139 Additional template for runtime image
140 Default: []
142 -add-template-var
144 Set variable for runtime image template
145 Default: []
147 -add-arch-template
149 Additional template for architecture-specific image
150 Default: []
152 -add-arch-template-var
154 Set variable for architecture-specific image
155 Default: []
157 -noverify
159 Do not verify the install root
160 Default: True
162 -sharedir
164 Directory containing all the templates. Overrides config file
165 sharedir
166 -enablerepo
168 Names of repos to enable
169 Default: []
171 -disablerepo
173 Names of repos to disable
174 Default: []
176 -rootfs-size
178 Size of root filesystem in GiB. Defaults to 2.
179 Default: 2
181 -noverifyssl
183 Do not verify SSL certificates
184 Default: False
186 -dnfplugin
188 Enable a DNF plugin by name/glob, or * to enable all of them.
189 Default: []
191 -squashfs-only
193 Use a plain squashfs filesystem for the runtime.
194 Default: False
196 dracut arguments
198 -dracut-arg
199 Argument to pass to dracut when rebuilding the initramfs. Pass
200 this once for each argument. NOTE: this overrides the default.
201 (default: )
202
204 Run this as root to create a boot.iso in ./results/:
205 dnf install lorax
207 setenforce 0
208 lorax -p Fedora -v 23 -r 23 \
209 -s http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/23/Everything/x86_64/os/ \
210 -s http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/updates/23/x86_64/ \
211 ./results/
212 setenforce 1
213 You can add your own repos with -s and packages with higher NVRs will
215 override the ones in the distribution repositories.
216 Under ./results/ will be the release tree files: .discinfo, .treeinfo,
218 everything that goes onto the boot.iso, the pxeboot directory, and the
219 boot.iso under ./images/.
220
222 If you are using lorax with mock v1.3.4 or later you will need to pass
223 --old-chroot to mock. Mock now defaults to using systemd-nspawn which
224 cannot create the needed loop device nodes. Passing --old-chroot will
225 use the old system where /dev/loop* is setup for you.
226
228 Lorax uses dnf to install packages into a temporary directory, sets up
229 configuration files, it then removes unneeded files to save space, and
230 creates a squashfs filesystem of the files. The iso is then built
231 using a generic initramfs and the kernel from the selected reposito‐
232 ries.
233 To drive these processes Lorax uses a custom template system, based on
235 Mako templates with the addition of custom commands (documented in
236 pylorax.ltmpl.LoraxTemplateRunner). Mako supports %if/%endif blocks as
237 well as free-form python code inside <% %> tags and variable substitu‐
238 tion with ${}. The default templates are shipped with lorax in
239 /usr/share/lorax/templates.d/99-generic/ and use the .tmpl extension.
240 runtime-install.tmpl
242 The runtime-install.tmpl template lists packages to be installed using
243 the installpkg command. This template is fairly simple, installing
244 common packages and architecture specific packages. It must end with
245 the run_pkg_transaction command which tells dnf to download and install
246 the packages.
247 runtime-postinstall.tmpl
249 The runtime-postinstall.tmpl template is where the system configuration
250 happens. The installer environment is similar to a normal running sys‐
251 tem, but needs some special handling. Configuration files are setup,
252 systemd is told to start the anaconda.target instead of a default sys‐
253 tem target, and a number of unneeded services are disabled, some of
254 which can interfere with the installation. A number of template com‐
255 mands are used here:
256 · append to add text to a file.
258 · chmod changes the file's mode.
260 · install to install a file into the installroot.
262 · mkdir makes a new directory.
264 · move to move a file into the installroot
266 · replace does text substitution in a file
268 · remove deletes a file
270 · runcmd run arbitrary commands.
272 · symlink creates a symlink
274 · systemctl runs systemctl in the installroot
276 runtime-cleanup.tmpl
278 The runtime-cleanup.tmpl template is used to remove files that aren't
279 strictly needed by the installation environment. In addition to the
280 remove template command it uses:
281 · removepkg remove all of a specific package's contents. A package may
283 be pulled in as a dependency, but not really used. eg. sound support.
284 · removefrom Removes some files from a package. A file glob can be
286 used, or the --allbut option to remove everything except a select
287 few.
288 · removekmod Removes kernel modules
290 The squashfs filesystem
292 After runtime-*.tmpl templates have finished their work lorax creates
293 an empty ext4 filesystem, copies the remaining files to it, and makes a
294 squashfs filesystem of it. This file is the / of the boot.iso's in‐
295 staller environment and is what is in the LiveOS/squashfs.img file on
296 the iso.
297 iso creation
299 The iso creation is handled by another set of templates. The one used
300 depends on the architecture that the iso is being created for. They are
301 also stored in /usr/share/lorax/templates.d/99-generic and are named
302 after the arch, like x86.tmpl and aarch64.tmpl. They handle creation of
303 the tree, copying configuration template files, configuration variable
304 substitution, treeinfo metadata (via the treeinfo template command).
305 Kernel and initrd are copied from the installroot to their final loca‐
306 tions and then xorrisofs is run to create the boot.iso
307
309 The default set of templates and configuration files from the
310 lorax-generic-templates package are shipped in the
311 /usr/share/lorax/templates.d/99-generic/ directory. You can make a copy
312 of them and place them into another directory under templates.d and
313 they will be used instead if their sort order is below all other direc‐
314 tories. This allows multiple packages to ship lorax templates without
315 conflict. You can (and probably should) select the specific template
316 directory by passing --sharedir to lorax.
317
319 Weldr Team
320
322 2018, Red Hat, Inc.
32330.19 May 06, 2019 LORAX(1)